During Sejal Sekhar's senior year of high school, she earned the Global and Missouri Seals of Biliteracy. Her journey with the Seal began with a strong personal commitment to bilingualism and cultural understanding, ultimately motivating her to pursue this achievement. Recently, on June 24, Sejal had the opportunity to speak at the Seal of Biliteracy Summit. Read her speech below:
Hello everyone, let me start off by saying how much of an honor it is to stand up here and speak to all of you. My name is Sejal Sekhar, and I am from St. Louis, Missouri. Currently, I am a rising sophomore at Cornell University where I am studying public policy with a business minor on the pre-law track.
Durante mi último año de escuela secundaria, obtuve el Sello de Biliteracidad Global y de Missouri. During my senior year of high school, I earned the Global and Missouri Seal of Biliteracy.
Having grown up in a multigenerational household, I quickly learned the importance of language and education. For my family, language and education served as the foundation of our home.
My parents, having both immigrated to America, filled our home with a blend of cultures and languages that shaped who I am today. I vividly remember being able to slowly pick up my mother tongue, Telugu, as my parents would show my brother and I the movies they watched growing up. As we all watched, I started to piece together the English captions with what I was hearing. I recall my dad’s favorite movie, Baahubali, which would play on what felt like an endless loop. Soon enough, I began to understand the dialogue through repetition and it felt like I had just unlocked a superpower. Little by little I began to be able to decipher what I thought to be a code language my parents would talk to each other in. I found so much happiness and pride in beginning to understand Telugu because my parents made learning fun. They made me find genuine enjoyment in connecting back to my culture.
The reason my parents always taught me to view education as a privilege and language as a gateway, is because receiving an education allowed them to make a life for themselves in America. Oftentimes education is taken for granted due to it being seen as a chore rather than a privilege. When I was younger, I will admit I did take receiving an education for granted. It was not until my parents told me the story of my grandmother that I fully understood the privilege I have to go to school.
In India, my Nanamma, meaning father’s mother in Telugu, lost her right to education due to the looming presence of Razakars. The Razakars were a paramilitary force that kidnapped women who subverted traditional societal roles. This paramilitary force ultimately led to my Nanamma being forced to drop out of school in 6th grade. For her, going to school was a matter of life or death.
For my parents, learning another language was not done out of desire, but rather necessity. My mom and dad had to learn English to give them a better life so that they could come live in America.
Education for my Nanamma was a matter of life and death. Language learning for my parents was a matter of living a better life. But for me, education and language are opportunities to enjoy learning and expanding my knowledge, which is something none of my family, besides my brother and I, have been able to do. It was a way for me to finally be able to understand and communicate with my grandmothers after years of us experiencing a significant language barrier.
And just to be able to say that is such a blessing. So, when asked to reflect on why I decided to pursue my Seal of Biliteracy, it was my way of paying homage to all the sacrifices that have been made by my family for me to go to school. While obtaining my Seal of Biliteracy started off as a way to honor my parents and Nanamma, I have since then learned the power being biliterate holds. When asking others about why being bilingual is important, they responded by saying it allows them to communicate and connect. But being bilingual expands far beyond that.
You see, communication is the foundation of the world we live in. Therefore, language is powerful in connecting us. However, learning foreign languages is becoming a declining practice in K-12 schools as well as at the university level. According to a study conducted by the American Councils for International Education in 2017, only 20% of students study a foreign language at the K-12 level and this significantly drops to 7.5% at the college level. This percentage has continued to steadily decline in recent years as well. Honestly, I found myself to be a contributor to the statistic as I ended up not taking a language course during my first year of college. But as I reflected on my past two semesters, I realized my education did not feel the same without taking Spanish. I have taken Spanish since I was in elementary school and found that it has helped me in multiple capacities. Therefore, in my upcoming year, I am going to return to learning Spanish, so I do not lose all the good being biliterate has provided me.
The lack of foreign language courses is harmful because it elevates the preconceived notion that English serves as a global lingua franca. With English being the most widely recognized global lingua franca today, this means we see English being adopted as the common communication among people who do not share the same native language. This leads to people thinking it is unnecessary to learn other languages due to English’s universality. However, the benefit of being bilingual expands well beyond communication. In fact, being multilingual has been shown to have cognitive benefits. This includes enhanced brain function and the ability to think more critically and creatively, therefore allowing for better problem-solving capabilities. The constant mental exercise of switching between languages allows for better memory and recall abilities.
The U.S. Department of Education goes on to recognize that being bilingual allows for increased professional opportunities as well as “bilingual and biliterate individuals having the opportunity to participate in the global community in more ways such as getting information from more places and learning more about people from other cultures. A quote that I find truly emphasizes the power being multilingual holds is said by Frank Smith who was a professor and department head of applied English language studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. It reads “One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way”. Multilingualism is a superpower which is why we all need to help grant this power to all.
SECRETARY INTRODUCTION:
With education serving as the connector of language, it is my honor to introduce a leader who has dedicated their life to education and tirelessly works to make education accessible to all. Dr. Miguel Cardona, the Secretary of Education, serves as the 12th U.S. Secretary of Education. Secretary Cardona is a trailblazer whose journey from the classroom to the highest levels of educational policy highlights his unwavering commitment to ensuring every student can have access to a quality education in America. Secretary Cardona was born and raised in Connecticut with a bicultural upbringing which served as an ignitor of his passion for education. As a first-generation college student, he overcame numerous challenges which ultimately led him to receive a degree from Central Connecticut State University. Later on he earned a Master’s degree in Bilingual and Bicultural Education from the University of Connecticut and DR. Cardona received his doctorate in Education as well. Professionally, his journey began as a fourth-grade teacher in the same school system he attended for two decades. He quickly rose through the ranks and became the youngest principal at the age of 27 in the state. Secretary Cardona went on to relentlessly advocate for equitable education through supporting bilingual education and spearheading initiatives to minimize achievement gaps.
While our country was experiencing unprecedented challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, Secretary Cardona’s leadership was pivotal in helping our country navigate pandemic learning by prioritizing safety and educational continuity.
Throughout his career, Secretary Cardona has been committed to increasing equity and excellence for all learners. The true meaning of giving back and improving the systems we live in is exemplified by Dr. Miguel Cardona who empathetically leads on the national stage. Since being appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021, he has been able to champion numerous policies aimed at increasing access to higher education, supporting student mental health, and addressing the systemic inequities that affect marginalized communities. Secretary Miguel Cardona has never lost sight of the vision that every child should have the opportunity to succeed in our education system regardless of background.
In the upcoming year, Secretary Cardona is focused on achieving academic excellence as well as accelerating learning for all students. The Department of Education is working to deliver comprehensive and rigorous education to all students as well as eliminate the educator shortage for every school. By providing students with a pathway to multilingualism, they are helping to ensure every student has the opportunity to go to college and begin a career.
No introduction truly suffices for all that Secretary Cardona has done for our nation but I hope I have been able to give you a sense of how dedicated and giving our Secretary of Education is.
With that being said, it is my pleasure to welcome Secretary Miguel Cardona to the stage. Please join me in welcoming a true advocate for students, educators, and the future of our nation, Secretary Miguel Cardona.
View Secretary Miguel Cardona’s Remarks at the Seal of Biliteracy Summit.